Favorite
by everythingisintoxicating
Summary: Anonymous asked: Demi and Jennel bump into each other backstage the night of the Finals performances after barely having any contact with each other since Jennel was eliminated. Adorable awkwardness ensues.


**An anonymous tumblr prompt.**

* * *

Thirty minutes until the show began. Thirty minutes until Jennel had to be in place to act oh-so-excited about welcoming the top three acts down a musical red carpet.  
She couldn't help but think that the entire finale setup was kind of corny, what with the acts singing as they walked down the carpet, and the previous top contestants lining their path.

It was stupid, but Jennel was just glad she had the chance to be a part of it. She saw Willie again, Cece, Bea, the boys- and the X factor sized hole in her heart was filled, if only for a few days.

She was rounding the corner, coming out of hair and makeup with one arm in the sleeve of her pristine white jacket when she collided with somebody else.

"Shit, I'm so sorry," she began, backing up and trying to blindly find the other sleeve of her jacket with her arm. When she finally got the jacket over her shoulders, she looked up to find Demi brushing herself off.

Demi was in a tight, colorful little dress that had cutouts just this side of decent. It hugged her curves and accentuated her hourglass shape and Jennel spent a tad longer than she should have just admiring the dress before she made eye contact with the girl wearing it.

Demi smiled a small, nervous smile. "Hey, Jennel."

The sound of her name on Demi's lips caused Jennel to shudder lightly. Before they left, the two of them had had some sort of weird, sexual tension fueled, teasing relationship that never really came to a head.

"Um. Hi. Hey. You look really good." Jennel stammered.

A little light reappeared in Demi's eyes as her smile got just a bit wider and she expressed her thanks for the comment.

There was a long moment in which neither of them said anything, the kind of silence that begged to be filled.

Demi broke it.

"I really miss you." The words tumbled out of her mouth and she looked like she didn't mean for them to be said out loud. "I mean, I missed you. Past tense, I guess. Since… You're here now and everything…"

Jennel smiled at Demi the way one smiles fondly at a small child. She just found Demi so _cute_ when she was nervous.

"I've missed you too." Jennel said, smiling.

There was another moment of silence before Demi threw her arms around Jennel, hugging her, hard. Jennel returned the embrace, holding Demi as tight as she comfortably could.

"So much." Jennel whispered, finishing her earlier confession. "So, so, much."

Where there were usually sexually-charged moments between the two of them, there were now moments layered with intense emotion that Jennel couldn't explain, and didn't want to.

A voice in the distance loudly announced that there were now only twenty minutes until the acts had to get in their places, and until the judges had to climb into their cars and make a big show of exiting them on the red carpet.

They broke apart, knowing that they didn't have much time together.

Demi tangled her fingers with Jennel's, and made direct eye contact with the shorter girl.

There was another moment of silence, characterized not by what the girls weren't able to say, but by the breath that they couldn't find.

Jennel's gaze dropped lazily to Demi's lips, and Demi noticed. She pulled the smaller girl into herself by her fingers, and brought her lips within centimeters of Jennel's, never touching. Jennel could feel the soft rush of Demi's breath on her face, and she ached knowing that they couldn't ever close that distance.

Demi broke their only contact by pulling her hands away to grab the sides of Jennel's jacket. Her eyes flicked down to the jacket as her fingers carefully and slowly fastened the buttons that Jennel had forgotten in the wake of their collision.

"You have to be out there soon." She said quietly, sadly.

Jennel's eyes were big and questioning, she'd been just seconds away from stepping into Demi and just kissing her because _why not?_ But she knew that she couldn't have done it, and still couldn't, for a million reasons.

Tears fought their way to the corners of Jennel's eyes but she refused to let them fall. She watched Demi's fingers finish the buttons and straighten out the jacket on her shoulders, smoothing out the wrinkles on the front.

Then their eyes met again, and Demi's were shining with the same unshed tears that Jennel's were.

"You were always my favorite, okay? Get out there, rockstar." Demi whispered, squeezing Jennel's hand one last time before she extracted herself from the magnetic energy that was Jennel Garcia.

Jennel watched her go, wondering why she suddenly felt so cold. She couldn't look away as a pair of hands landed on Demi's waist, intercepting her on the way to her stylist. The hands flipped her around, and then Wilmer was leaning in and pressing a long kiss to Demi's lips, and Jennel was frozen in place, just… Watching.

She felt like she was going to throw up. She couldn't muster anger, only a numb pain.

Demi and Wilmer broke apart, and Demi's head turned imperceptibly toward Jennel. Their eyes met for such a short time that Jennel later wondered if it had really happened. And then Jennel was being whisked away to be put in place; everything had become vague and she wasn't sure what was going on around her, just that it was all going on while she felt like she wasn't. She was stuck back where Demi had left her.

Jennel knew that nothing she was feeling made sense. She knew that nothing _at all_ made sense, not with Demi.

And later, when Mario asked Demi what her favorite part of X Factor was, Jennel saw the way she stumbled over the question and offered an answer even more vague than Britney's. Demi's words from earlier echoed in her head. _You were always my favorite._ Jennel saw her smile for the camera. And Jennel saw her smile fall, saw her look down at her hands. Jennel saw her sniff, fight to push back the sadness that threatened to drown her. Jennel knew, because Jennel was sitting on the ground backstage, watching the show on a little TV, fighting that same sadness herself- trying not to let it consume her. Trying to keep her head above, when Demi kept threatening to pull her under.


End file.
